WWW Wednesdays – November 30, 2011

I’m working on a “101 in 1001 challenge” update about the past two months and I hope to display my “accomplishments” by the end of this week. I would have loved to do an update for October alone, but just didn’t get the time to do much. Not that I accomplished a lot in November either… Oh well, life works that way sometimes. At least we’re getting to have some good reading, and since it’s part of my 101 in 1001 challenge, I’m getting a few things done!

My bookshelf

- What I’m currently readingOut of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Sir Ken Robinson. Robinson gives good background data on where our current education system comes from and what it lacks for the new world. I’m not sure where this is going but I’m enjoying the book so far.

- What I recently finished readingThe Help by Kathryn Stockett. I just read The Secret Life of Bees so this was a great book to follow up with and I loved it too. The writing was great, I couldn’t put the book down and wanted to know what would happen next. Each character (and there are a lot of them) was very well developed. I’m a little disappointed by the end, where I’d like to have seen a “happier” ending for Abileen because she deserves it so much. Otherwise this is a great story about that era and I highly recommend it.

- What I think I’ll read next
I recently read The Lying Game by Sara Shepard for my book club and I LOVED it! What a suspenseful murder story, but when I started the book, I had no idea it was the first of a series. This means I had no idea what really happened to one of the two main characters at the end of it. But now I’ve got book #2 called Never Have I Ever so I can’t wait to read it. Unfortunately there’s a book #3 and it’s not coming out until… Spring 2012!

The Magic Porridge Pot by Paul Galdone. A witch gives a hungry little girl a magic porridge pot that produces porridge upon request, but makes a big mess when her mother tries to use it without knowing the magic words to stop it.

- What they recently finished reading

Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten by Jack Gantos. Rotten Ralph comes to appreciate his owner Sarah’s healthy cat food after he gets sick from eating out of trash cans. A good lesson for kids about junk food. Spoiler alert: the vet gives Rotten Ralph medication to make him vomit the bad food… My kids loved this story!

The Last Laugh by Jose Aruego. This hilarious wordless book tells the story of a clever duck outwitting a bullying snake. A good start-up book on bullying for little ones.

- What I think they’ll read nextI picked up a whole bunch of books at the library today, so I’m sure there are a few good ones in there.

What about you? Any books you or your kids are reading you’d like to share?

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My boys are currently obsessed with a new children’s book we just purchased: Michael Chabon’s The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man. We’ve had it less than a week and I think I’ve got it almost memorized.:)